Child Abuse Identification and Reporting:
Iowa Training for Mandatory Reporters

Perpetrators of Child Abuse


Introduction

Who Are the Mandated Reporters?

Abuse and Neglect/
Maltreatment Have Many Presentations

The Disturbing Statistics

Legal Definitions Related to Child Maltreatment

Recognizing Child Abuse

Risk Factors Contributing to Child Abuse and Maltreatment

Protective Factors for Child Abuse and Maltreatment

The Consequences of Child Abuse

Perpetrators of Child Abuse

Dos and Don'ts Regarding Talking with Children about Possible Abuse or Maltreatment

Reporting Child Abuse and Maltreatment

After the Assessment Process

Child Abuse Prevention Services

Safe Haven for Newborns--Overview of the Safe Haven Act

Conclusion

References

Resources

Take Test

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It is a myth that strangers most often abuse children. By far the vast majority of maltreated children are victimized by those who are familiar to the child and who have ready access to the child. Relatives of the child are most often the perpetrators of child abuse. In particular, parents make up the majority of child abuse perpetrators. Approximately 80% (79.9%) of perpetrators were parents. Of the parents who were perpetrators, more than 90% (91.5%) were biological parents, 4.2% were stepparents, and 0.7 percent were adoptive parents. Other relatives accounted for an additional 6.7%; unmarried partners of parents accounted for 3.8% (USDHHS-ACF, 2008).


Courtesy of the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services (2008)

Female perpetrators, mostly mothers, were typically younger than male perpetrators, who were mostly fathers. The median age for women perpetrators was 31 years; for men, it was 34 years. Women also comprised a larger percentage of all perpetrators than men, 57.9% compared to 42.1% (USDHHS-ACF, 2008). Nearly 76 percent of all perpetrators of sexual abuse were friends or neighbors and 30 percent were other relatives. Less than 3 percent of parental perpetrators were associated with sexual abuse (USDHHS-ACF, 2008).

The racial distribution of perpetrators was similar to the race of their victims. During 2006, more than one-half (53.7%) of perpetrators were White and one-fifth (20.7 %) were African-American. Approximately 20% (19.5%) of perpetrators were Hispanic (USDHHS-ACF, 2008).

More than one-half (60.4%) of all perpetrators were found to have neglected children. Slightly more than 10 percent (10.3%) of perpetrators physically abused children, and 7.0% sexually abused children. Almost 12% (11.5%) of all perpetrators were associated with more than one type of maltreatment (USDHHS-ACF, 2008).

In Iowa in 2006 there were 19,695 substantiated perpetrators of child maltreatment, of these 14,355 were the parents of the child(USDHHS-ACF, 2008).

Continue to Dos and Don'ts Regarding Talking with Children about Possible Abuse or Maltreatment